Nearly 20 students from William W. Bodine High School for International Affairs recently visited the Portal when it was in Love Park.
The students were joined by Bodine teacher and athletic director Michael Schieber, teacher and athletic coach Marty Moyers, school mascot Amby and the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia.
During their visit, Bodine held handmade signs to connect with students in Dublin, Ireland; Vilnius, Lithuania; and Lublin, Poland.
The installation stayed in Love Park until Nov. 7 before moving to its current location in the Philadelphia Independence Visitor Center at 16th Street and JFK Boulevard.
Lithuanian founder Benediktas Gyles came up with the concept for the portal in 2016 with the goal of connecting viewers to other cities around the globe. However, the project officially began in 2021 when residents of Vilnius was connected to residents in Lublin through a screen.
Each portal is equipped with a small camera above an eight-foot-tall screen displaying live video. The portal flips from location to location every three minutes. The livestream operates 24/7.
Bodine was founded in 1981 as a partnership between the School District of Philadelphia and the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia.
Located at 1101 N. 4th St. in the Northern Liberties section of Philadelphia, the magnet school is the first public high school to be co-sponsored by a private world affairs organization.